A fine impression of this great rarity; we have not encountered an impression of the first state of this print on the market. Printed in black on a cream/tan simile Japon paper. The impressions pictured in Elesh, Delteil, etc., are of the second state.

This first state print is delicately printed; the composition is complete but in the second state the print is reworked rather heavily to produce a darker image.

Ensor was interested in the fishermen of Ostende from an early age. This etching is surely based on a charcoal drawing Ensor made in the early 1880's; another version was also made by his friend Willy Finch (Tournai, Musee des Beaux Arts). This etching shows a fisherman posing in Ensor's studio, far from the natural environment which would have been the subject for most other artists. The style is of course close to that of many of Rembrandt's etching portraits which Ensor studied and copied in his early years.